Friday, March 12, 2010

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine, the unquestioned leading hobby publication on the market. Today on his Twitter account, Olds had some comments about hobby blogger, and known Beckett detractor, Voice of the Collector.

The ball got rolling when Olds "re-tweeted" a Follow Friday list by CardboardIcons - with Olds choosing to delete the link to Voice of the Collector's Twitter account. Here is the conversation on Twitter that followed:

CardboardIcons - @chrisolds2009 notice you left a guy off that RT. LMFAO.

Chris Olds -Editor of Beckett Baseball magazine -@cardboardicons Yep. And there are countless reasons why.I don't know him, he doesn't know me. But he insists on building his identity with cheap shots, so there's no need to FF (Follow Friday).

Chris Olds -Editor of Beckett Baseball magazine - @FieldLevelView It's easy to be negative ... and it's easy to lie if you're desperate to get hits and love cheapshots. It happens a lot.

There has not been a response by VOTC on Twitter at the time this was posted. His last Twitter message implied that he was already having a rough day because he was heading to a dentist appointment.

UPDATE: VOTC - Via Twitter: For the record I don't recall EVER attacking anyone at Beckett personally. It's business, never personal. I harbor no ill will to anyone. What prompted this? I have never attacked him personally in any (way). In fact I really like his (Chris Olds) writing.

7 comments:

I have never ONCE attacked Chris personally. I disagree with many of the tactics employed by his company and am not alone in this opinion. In all honesty I like Chris' writing and think it is ashame that Beckett is so afraid of dissenting opinion that they chose to censure anyone who doesn't have a like-minded view of The Hobby. As to his refernce about me "lying", I'd really like some examples of when I have done this with regards to Beckett.

I have the ability to seperate a company from its employees or an opinion from the person, its amazing that the concept of agree to disagree is so lost on Chris that apparently he feels the need to take cheap shots like that.

When was the last time I even mentioned them in a post? The National? Providing unhindered news, commentary, and product information isn't dependent on me beating a dead horse. At this point it stupidity like that displayed this morning that continues to add fuel to the fire.

I was pointed here seeking comment on this item -- unfortunately after it had been published.

Rather than have anything misconstrued, I'll leave a comment here instead.

The statement "It's easy to be negative ... and it's easy to lie if you're desperate to get hits and love cheapshots. It happens a lot" was clarified on the Twitter feed in this comment via a reply to someone who asked. It's below:

"@FieldLevelView It can refer to a lot of people or it can refer to a few. Take it for what it is."

Nobody was named, but if people feel they've been unfairly targeted or singled out, I'm sorry. However, going negative with no regard for facts or reality is an unfortunate thing that is seen too often among the blogosphere (for the hobby and otherwise). It's unfortunate, because all a lot of this drama does is turn readers away from peoples' blogs, if not the hobby completely.

I stand by the "I don't know him, he doesn't know me. But he insists on building his identity with cheap shots, so there's no need to FF (Follow Friday)" comment. I think it's quite clear why I didn't have him on the list. And why should he care, anyway given his obvious stance on Beckett. (He's right -- I have never been the subject of a cheap shot from him. Beckett has.)

After all, the name of his blog is "Voice of the Collector: The Anti-Beckett"

And the apparent mission statement of his blog is this:

"The conflict of interests surrounding the once respected Hobby giant have grown to such proportion that they can no longer be ignored. From arbitrary card pricing to subjective card grading, sub-par editorial, manufacturer collusion, glorified product reviews and near plagiarism, this blatant disregard for the collector's best intrests in the name of the almighty dollar MUST end. It is the goal of this blog to be the true VOICE of the COLLECTOR."

In short, this all stems from an joking observation from one blogger -- one I have a decent back-and-forth rapport with, among others -- and his off-the-cuff comment which I replied to.

In my effort to support a few other bloggers -- I myself am one as well -- I retweeted a FF and I dropped a name whom I do NOT support. My bad. However, I'd stop short of calling that "censorship."

But, at the same time, I'd like to note something, which runs contrary to something he said on Twitter. Neither I, nor Tracy Hackler, have votc blocked on Twitter.

My email address is posted on nearly every story I write online -- with every single one telling readers if they have a comment, question or idea to send an email.

Few of those who do take such stands or write such items ever do. Ryan Tedards, thank you for doing so.